Pakistan must fight antisemitism as it takes on key mediating role
As Pakistan inched closer to mediating a deal between the United States and Iran in Islamabad last weekend following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, an inflammatory, antisemitic and ill-timed tweet from Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif generated a strong backlash, ultimately leading to its deletion.
The post was also subsequently removed from his Facebook and Instagram accounts after, as sources claim, the civil and military leadership expressed dismay. In his remarks, Asif — with a history of giving provocative, derogatory, antisemitic and even misogynistic comments to please his populist and ultra-religious audience — called Israel “evil”, “cancerous” and a “curse for humanity” on X just hours before US and Iranian delegations landed in Islamabad.
Asif wrote: “While peace talks are underway in Islamabad, genocide is being committed in Lebanon. Innocent citizens are being killed by Israel, first Gaza, then Iran and now Lebanon, bloodletting continues unabated. I hope and pray people who created this cancerous state on Palestinians land to get rid of European jews burn in hell.”
Israeli officials and many observers in the US criticized Asif’s tweet for being antisemitic towards the Jewish people and dismissive of their historical ties to the land. The tweet invited scrutiny from Israel in a rare direct response, given that Jerusalem and Islamabad do not have diplomatic ties. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called Asif’s comments “outrageous” in a post on X, elaborating that “this is not a statement that can be tolerated from any government, especially not from one that claims to be a neutral arbiter for peace.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar too, called out the tweet and stated that Israel “views very gravely these blatant antisemitic blood libels from a government claiming to mediate peace.”
“Calling the Jewish state ‘cancerous’ is effectively calling for its annihilation,” he added, vowing to defend Israel against terrorists.
Asif’s rhetoric in the Pakistani media and his personal social media profile has consistently been anti-Israel and on several occasions antisemitic in nature, including retweets and his framing of the October 7 attacks by Hamas as an “act of resistance to gain freedom from the Zionist occupation.”
For a country that has shown a responsible attitude in the recent past by confronting the Taliban in Afghanistan over terrorism, banning the far-right Islamist extremist party like the Tehreek-e-Labbaik and now posturing itself as a credible and neutral intermediary during the current turmoil between Iran and the United States, Asif’s statements as a public official were inappropriate. The smearing of an entire nation and invoking antisemitic tropes on the eve of US-Iran talks was deeply offensive. The statements created mistrust and generated a controversy which could have been easily avoided at a critical juncture. They raised doubt about Pakistan’s neutrality as a peace broker in a conflict to which Israel is a direct party.
The defense minister has also termed Israel an “enemy of the Muslim world” in an uninformed take during the discussion in the Pakistani parliament, a constant narrative being pushed, despite the fact that Muslim countries like the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan share cordial relations and strategic partnership with the Jewish state and there is no direct conflict between Pakistan and Jerusalem. Asif’s statements illustrate that antisemitic attitudes remain entrenched within Pakistani society, media and political parties. On a leadership level, however, this was not always the case.
In 2005, then-president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, addressed the World Jewish Congress in New York and, in a historic speech, said that “Pakistan has no direct conflict or dispute with Israel. We pose no threat to Israel’s security. We trust that Israel poses no threat to Pakistan’s national security.”
Musharraf advocated for normalizing relations with Israel and argued that it was in Pakistan’s strategic interest to bypass the traditionally hostile stance influenced by radical mullahs and religious parties. As president, he initiated open contacts in 2005, citing the need for “realism” to mitigate the domination of Pakistan’s arch rival India vis-à-vis Israel. That pragmatism on Israel once exercised by Musharraf needs to be brought back. Fighting extremism and antisemitism is in Pakistan’s own interest to ensure long-term stability and protection of democratic norms and minority rights as it gains the world’s attention as a mediator.
Islamabad Talks paved the way for broader future negotiations between Tehran and Washington. Including Israel would have been even better for it made strategic sense and would have solidified Pakistan’s role as a neutral venue and a bridge builder committed to regional stability.
For the Pakistanis who do wish to see normalization, direct contact between Israeli and Pakistani officials was a positive sign, though they wish it could have been under better circumstances. The visit of Jared Kushner —Trump’s son-in-law, who happens to be Jewish with deep ties to Israel — to Islamabad, also carried some political weight and signaled that Pakistan is finally opening up.
